Bhagalpur: Consumers of smart meters are worried about getting fined. Consumers are being fined for increasing the load on the meter more than prescribed. Due to this the electricity bill has started coming high and the consumers are getting worried. Consumers are going round the electricity offices complaining of excess billing. The big thing is that the consumers do not get prior information about the increase in load and the imposition of fine. Bill is generated on 17th of every month. This time also the consumers of smart meters are worried about the bill to be made. Consumers are already apprehensive about getting fined again.
Feels fine at max load
The smart meter monitors the power consumption at all times. The load reading is taken after every half an hour. If the maximum load in the data taken for the whole 30 days exceeds the permissible load for the consumer, the smart meter deducts the fine from the consumer’s account on the billing date and due to this the electricity bill of the consumer increases.
Officials say, ‘Consumers should avoid trouble by increasing the load’
According to Pranav Mishra, assistant engineer of the power company, this problem can be avoided by increasing the load taken according to the consumption. No security money is required to increase the load in the smart meter, but it can be increased only by giving an application. Earlier also there was a maximum demand charge.
consumers are worried
Sanjeev of Tilkamanjhi told that he was worried after the smart meter was installed. With the arrival of summer, his electricity bill had increased a lot. They used to run AC in summer also, but the bill did not come that much. Later, after getting the details of the electricity bill, it was found that this is happening due to the increase in consumption of more than two kilowatt load. At the same time, Rahul told that after the installation of smart meters, he was very upset. On any one day in a month, suddenly Rs 100-150 more was deducted from his account, while there was not much difference in electricity consumption as compared to earlier. Later the matter turned out to be of overload due to which fine was imposed.